EDUCATING children is a psychologically subtle and intimate art. Bombarding students in a class with information and data does not constitute teaching. Blinding with science is no role for the teacher. If it is seen in this context, then teaching is a craft practised in the proximity of a group or individual student and not at arm?s length. In this day of hi-tech human contact is proving to be the consistent factor that stimulates learning. It is this contact and the quality of this contact is the lubricating factor to kindle a more productive learning process. The decline of the CPE success rate is worrying. Why are children not succeeding? We are told inspectors of education are concerned about this. So, is the Minister of Education? What have they done about it? How are they planning to diagnose this shackle, which is holding back our children? Why is education a low priority among some students? Why even private tuition is not able to rescue some of our failing students?

This paper argues for a more educationally sound policy from the MOE by examining the modern basic premise of education and how people learn. It reasserts the need to examine the size of the class for teaching methods to be effective.

Modern Premise of Education

The 21st century is and will be flooding with technologically advanced methods of learning and teaching. Cybercity promises to accelerate this technological prospect in Mauritius. The more this technology mania becomes a reality; the more the need for the human contact is underlined in education. In health studies, it has been shown that nurses failed to progress to learn just by responding to multiple-choice questions from a knowledge machine. Distance and open-learning methods face similar challenges. There is a great need for people to get together to discuss, to feel the perspectives of some theories and to ?humanise? learning. ?Me and My Machine? can never be the sole premise of education because it is too dry, just a monologue and unresponsive. Education cannot advance just by having a monologue.

Education is a dialogue. This is the basic premise of learning in the 21st century and it has been identified as ?Conversational Learning?. Traditionally, we have upheld the notion that learning can take place through observation and touch. This is still true but to internalise learning and to make the neural connections to establish a pattern of experience we need to talk about what we have observed or touched. This talking is critical to develop the mind, the thinking power, the perspective of students. It is this perspective development in children and adults that transforms the individual from a possible static inert learner to a smart, intellectually elegant person. Educators transform people by transforming their experiences. This is the fundamental premise that the MOE and its advisers, teachers and professional developers must understand. It is then and only then that we will produce adults who are capable, reflective, adaptable, conceptually competent and smart citizens. This is also the basis for improving examination results, stimulating interest in children, inspiring parents and moving Mauritius forward. For example, the ZEP team must seek to transform the students? and parents? experiences if we are to see any significant change in achievement levels of the ZEP cluster.

We learn, adjust, change and move on as a result of our experiences. Thus experiential learning is another strong basic premise of our development and achievement. The Society of Experiential Learning has for decades asserted education as a renovation of experience that people go through. If we could only maximise the learning from our experiences, we would transform our thinking, our emotional intelligence, our practices and our relationships. John Dewey, one of the principal proponents of experiential learning, asserts:

?(There is a) need of forming a theory of experience in order that education may be intelligently conducted upon the basis of experience.?

Thus, curriculum developers, educators and parents should immerse themselves in searching, constructing and practising a theory of experiential learning in the Mauritian context. What does this mean in practice? How can we make the most of our experience and uphold it as a learning tool?

Each experience, in whatever context, is a microcosm of knowledge. It has a social, human, psychological and educational paradigm embedded in it. We can learn by peeling the experience layer by layer just like an onion to expose the psycho-social and ethico-legal elements of the experience and reflect upon the incident and the elements. This will enable us to identify the type of knowledge we use in practice in a particular kind of situation, scrutinize our actions and contemplate what we might be able to do differently next time. This is reflective learning from analyzing experience.

Grounding the Modern Premise into Action

The approaches expounded above are critical for student learning and developing critical skills. They are essential and they should be at the forefront of our educational practices. These skills are best developed in classes, which are small, interactive and discursive. Intensive small group work is the technique, which inculcates the reflective, the thoughtful, the insightful and the discerning qualities in learners and future citizens. This is what makes us critical and incisive. So, if we want a type of education, which develops people, then we must have smaller classes.

Many parents sacrifice their health and wealth to send their children to private schools precisely for this reason. Private institutions have smaller classes because education is about meaningful contact between teachers and students. If one teacher is responsible for thirty plus students, then it is difficult for them to have a meaningful facilitative relationship. Students? learning suffers in big classes. There is no time for supportive relationships to develop. Students have to fight for themselves and the weaker students drift in a fog of helplessness. This leads to greater stress among students and parents get increasingly worried why their sons and daughters are not performing. This creates a vicious circle leading to parents resorting to private tuition. As soon as private tuition starts, a more meaningful type of supportive relationship is introduced and the child begins to perform better. Thus, large classes are harmful, damaging and detrimental to the child?s education. I believe organizations like UNESCO, the Commonwealth, the EU and all educational institutions should make class size an issue for this century. Large classes deny children proper education. The above institutions claim that every child must have right to education but they have ignored the premise, which develops the child. It is small classes. It is this kind of small class education that enables us to become more knowledgeable and cohesive adults. Large classes stifle, suppress and suffocates education.

Teachers are more stressed in large classes. They cannot achieve what they really want to give to students. The teacher is human and can only divide his/her attention for the benefit of a limited number of students. It is incredible that successive ministers do not seem to understand that students learn from the quality of attention and relationship they have with their teachers. Instead, class sizes have increased and students put in a very difficult situation where they have to compete for the teachers? help and attention. We do not need a genius to realize this notion that large classes are a disadvantage to low ability student such as ZEP appears to be. Instead of coming up with fancy and trendy schemes, the MOE must address basic requirements, which motivate students and influence learning far more than better carpets and new buildings.

I repeat it is class size that needs attention, restructuring, reforming and transforming. Smaller class empowers teachers and students to enter innovative and flexible learning milieu. It is no good for MIE to edify innovative teaching methods when teachers cannot apply them in the schools. Class size remains the biggest challenge. The vast amount of money used to build so many schools must be used to slash class size down. If the MOE really cares about the children and is not seeking political expediency, then slice down the class size. This is what will benefit the students? most and not high stake expensive and complex projects. So, why do education authorities always go for the big idea but ignore simple basic mechanics of education? Is it because simplicity is too easy? Or is it addressing simple issue with big ideas that attracts political votes and prestige? No! The basic needs are always harder to meet. It is improving the basic requirement that will make progress tangible. When it comes to nuts and bolts, there can be no padding and no camouflage. However, if we do face the basic challenges, then real improvements become visible. So, if the MOE and the population of Mauritius sincerely want to transform education of our children, then let us rise to the challenge. If we want our children to be educated properly, let us march with slogans ?Size Matters? asking our political servants to reduce class volume.

The basic mechanics of school-based education is shown in the diagram below. The three main segments are the student, the teacher and the medium used to facilitate learning. They are also proportional to each other. If there is an increase in student numbers, then the medium and the number of teachers have to be modified and increased. If student numbers are increased and teacher numbers remain the same, learning suffer. It was thought that the medium could be adjusted and changed to reach a larger number of students but the human contact is sacrificed. This results in poor learning. Therefore, the MOE has to re-examine its policies and master plan. There is no doubt that educational policies and actions must revolve around the three segments identified. Any measure outside these segments is pure window dressing. So what are the policies needed and what can the MOE do?

Figure I: Basic components, which influence quality of education

Educational Policy Review

Policy makers should review the policies on:

• Student-Teacher ratio to increase attention

• Hours of contact to increase support

• Educational Approaches to maximize learning

In practice, these are the policies that we should have in Mauritius:

1. The number of students in a class should be no more than 15-20. This is the optimum group manageable to give a reasonable amount of attention to the students, develop satisfactory supportive educational relationship to motivate them to learn and excel. The US National Centre for Policy Analysis affirms that class size reduction is of prime importance and their research indicates:

a) The optimum number of students in a class is 17. The MOE should stipulate 1:17 (one teacher to 17 students) as the ideal ratio. Where desirable, groups can be larger if students are assembling to perform exercises, which need larger group participation.

b) If students misbehave just two percent of the time, that reduces the effectiveness of teaching in a class of 25 students to 60 percent.

c) If the class has 40 students instead of 25, teaching effectiveness drops to 45 percent -- thus classroom size amplifies the effect of individual misbehavior rates.

d) One way to deal with the problem is to reduce classroom size if there is misbehavior. Private schools, however, don?t tolerate high rates of misbehavior, and many have higher teacher to student ratios than public schools.

2. Teachers must have one to one contact with students and this should be no less than one to three hours? personal contact with each student per week. This must be done as a form of supportive mechanism and informal supervision of each student. One to one supervision is an amazingly powerful tool to motivate, to review work, to stimulate thinking and to guide students to achieve their potential. This is a personal tutorial system, which must be instituted from primary to university level education. Teachers must be accountable for the time they spend on personal tutorial system and this will ensure that students get the help and support they need to thrive. Policy of this nature will also eliminate the need for private expensive tuition.

3. Teachers must be encouraged to practise seminar style of teaching methods to encourage group learning and personal development. This means that MIE has to energise its educational development program to ensure our teachers are versatile, have an assortment of group teaching techniques and individual support mechanism.

Conclusion

Students are more likely to learn in smaller class. The challenge for educators and policy makers is to make the conceptual leap that education is a subtle activity and needs a more intimate group work. Herding students in large numbers is harmful and stifling. The MOE may feel smaller class may be expensive but the long-term cost-benefit analysis shows investment in small class pays substantial dividend.

Are you a concerned teacher, parent or student? Campaign for a smaller class for the future of our next generation. Tell me what you think of smaller class at [email protected] or write to me at l?express.

Taleb DURGAHEE